The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography
Biography is one of the most widespread literary genres worldwide. Biographies and autobiographies of actors, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other famous figures have never been more prominent in book shops and publishers' catalogues. This Handbook offers a wide-ranging, multi-authored survey on biography in Antiquity from its earliest representatives to Late Antiquity. It aims to be a broad introduction and a reference tool on the one hand, and to move significantly beyond the state-of-the-art on the other. To this end, it addresses conceptual questions about this sprawling genre, offers both in-depth readings of key texts and diachronic studies, and deals with the reception of ancient biography across multiple eras up to the present day. In addition, it takes a wide approach to the concept of ancient biography by examining biographical depictions in different textual and visual media (epigraphy, sculpture, architecture) and by providing outlines of biographical developments in ancient and late antique cultures other than Graeco-Roman.

Highly accessible, this book aims at a broad audience ranging from specialists to newcomers in the field. Chapters provide English translations of ancient (and modern) terminology and citations. In addition, all individual chapters are concluded by a section containing suggestions for further reading on their specific topic.
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The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography
Biography is one of the most widespread literary genres worldwide. Biographies and autobiographies of actors, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other famous figures have never been more prominent in book shops and publishers' catalogues. This Handbook offers a wide-ranging, multi-authored survey on biography in Antiquity from its earliest representatives to Late Antiquity. It aims to be a broad introduction and a reference tool on the one hand, and to move significantly beyond the state-of-the-art on the other. To this end, it addresses conceptual questions about this sprawling genre, offers both in-depth readings of key texts and diachronic studies, and deals with the reception of ancient biography across multiple eras up to the present day. In addition, it takes a wide approach to the concept of ancient biography by examining biographical depictions in different textual and visual media (epigraphy, sculpture, architecture) and by providing outlines of biographical developments in ancient and late antique cultures other than Graeco-Roman.

Highly accessible, this book aims at a broad audience ranging from specialists to newcomers in the field. Chapters provide English translations of ancient (and modern) terminology and citations. In addition, all individual chapters are concluded by a section containing suggestions for further reading on their specific topic.
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The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography

by Koen De Temmerman (Editor)
The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Biography

by Koen De Temmerman (Editor)

Hardcover

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Overview

Biography is one of the most widespread literary genres worldwide. Biographies and autobiographies of actors, politicians, Nobel Prize winners, and other famous figures have never been more prominent in book shops and publishers' catalogues. This Handbook offers a wide-ranging, multi-authored survey on biography in Antiquity from its earliest representatives to Late Antiquity. It aims to be a broad introduction and a reference tool on the one hand, and to move significantly beyond the state-of-the-art on the other. To this end, it addresses conceptual questions about this sprawling genre, offers both in-depth readings of key texts and diachronic studies, and deals with the reception of ancient biography across multiple eras up to the present day. In addition, it takes a wide approach to the concept of ancient biography by examining biographical depictions in different textual and visual media (epigraphy, sculpture, architecture) and by providing outlines of biographical developments in ancient and late antique cultures other than Graeco-Roman.

Highly accessible, this book aims at a broad audience ranging from specialists to newcomers in the field. Chapters provide English translations of ancient (and modern) terminology and citations. In addition, all individual chapters are concluded by a section containing suggestions for further reading on their specific topic.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780198703013
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 02/10/2021
Series: Oxford Handbooks
Pages: 800
Product dimensions: 9.80(w) x 6.90(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Koen De Temmerman, Professor of Classics and European Literature, Ghent University

Koen De Temmerman is a Professor of Classics and European Literature at Ghent University, Belgium. He is the author of Crafting Characters: Heroes and Heroines in the Ancient Greek Novel (OUP 2014) and the co-editor of Writing Biography in Greece and Rome: Narrative Technique and Fictionalization (Cambridge 2016, with K. Demoen) and Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature (Leiden 2018, with E. van Emde Boas).

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction1. Writing (About) Ancient Lives: Scholarship, Definitions and Concepts, Koen De Temmerman2. What are Bioi/Vitae? Generic Self-Consciousness in Ancient Biography, Sean A. Adams3. Individual and Collected Lives in Antiquity, Jeffrey Beneker4. Popular Biography, Ioannis M. Konstantakos5. Jewish Biography, Joseph Geiger6. Christian Biography, Scott Fitzgerald JohnsonPart II. Reading Biographies7. Fifth-Century Preliminaries, Christopher Pelling8. Isocrates' Evagoras: The Educational Ends of the 'First' Biography in Classical Greece, Takis Poulakos9. Xenophon of Athens, Noreen Humble10. Ex uno fonte multi rivuli? Unity and Multiplicity in Hellenistic Biography, Tiziano Dorandi11. Nepos' Life of Atticus, Nicolaus' Life of Caesar and the Genre of Political Biography in the Age of Augustus, Rex Stem12. Biography and Praise in Trajanic Rome: Tacitus' Agricola and Pliny's Panegyricus, Christopher Whitton13. Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Aristoula Georgiadou and Michele A. Lucchesi14. Plutarch: Lives of the Caesars (Galba, Otho) and Lives of Aratus and Artaxerxes, Luc Van der Stockt15. Types of Life-Writing in Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars and Illustrious Men, Dennis Pausch16. The Alexander Romance, Corinne Jouanno17. Lucian: Satirical and Idealising Lives (Peregrinus, Alexander, Demonax), Graham Anderson18. The Biographer as Literary Artist: Form and Content in Philostratus' Apollonius, Adam Kemezis19. Diogenes Laertius and Philosophical Lives, Stephen White20. A Bishop's Biography: Eusebius of Caesarea and The Life of Constantine, James Corke-Webster21. Augustine's Confessions as Autobiography, Michael Stuart Williams22. Solitude and Biography in Jerome's Life of Hilarion, Jason KönigPart III. Tracing Biographees23. Lives of Homer, Suzanne Saïd24. Ancient Biographies of Statesmen, Jacqueline Klooster25. Sophists, Kendra Eshleman26. Philosophers and their Neoplatonic Lives: Problemsand Paradigms, Graeme Miles27. Holy Men: Lives of Miracle Workers, Apostles, and Saints, Danny Praet28. Martyrs and Life-Writing in Late Antiquity, Koen De Temmerman and Danny Praet29. Monastic Lives, Mark EdwardsPart IV. Cultures30. Syriac Biography, Muriel Debié31. Coptic Life Stories, Arietta Papaconstantinou32. Armenian Biography in Late Antiquity, S. Peter Cowe33. Arabic Biography, Faustina Doufikar-AertsPart V. Media34. Biographical Monuments: Displaying Selves and Lives in Ancient Egypt, Elizabeth Frood35. Engraved Lives: Biographical Material in Epigraphical Sources, Christof Schuler and Florian R. Forster36. Depicted Lives: The Role of The Visual Arts in Sophistic Self-Representation, Zahra Newby37. Triumphant Lives: Portraits, Statues and Triumphal Arches in Imperial Rome, Eric VarnerPart VI. Reception38. Byzantine Biography, Martin Hinterberger39. Roman Biography in the Medieval West: Did Classical Texts Facilitate Complex Literary Portraits in the Middle Ages?, Lars Boje Mortensen40. Ancient Biography and the Italian Renaissance: Old Models and New Developments, Thomas Hendrickson41. Ancient Biography in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Enrica Zanin42. After-Lives: Biographical Receptions of Greek and Roman Poets in the Twentieth Century, Nora Goldschmidt
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